Thursday morning I head off to Saratoga Springs, New York, with Rebecca Simkin, Gemma Files and Steve Barringer. It will be my first US literary convention. For months I’ve been looking forward to these four days of books, discussions about books, launches, author readings, autograph sessions, workshops and, of course, parties. Fantasy fiction covers a lot […]
World Fantasy Convention 2015 Read More »
I will be doing a reading of short fiction and poetry at Can-Con in Ottawa, Saturday October 4, 2014. My co-reader will be novelist S.M. Carriere. One of the best things about conventions is meeting and discovering new authors and making new friends. Conventions are magnets for creative people in the arts and multimedia. Can-Con is an Ottawa
Reading at Can-Con Read More »
Students are bombarded with media and spend too many hours in front of computer and TV screens. Does this mean we shouldn’t show videos in class? Of course not. There is an important place for watching videos in the French or Spanish language classroom. Second languages are best learned in situ but not every student can jet
Easily Engage More Students with Web and Video Language Immersion Read More »
I will be spending most of the month of February in Peru, socializing with my sister-in-law’s family and friends and learning as much Spanish as I can. As a Canadian, I have French but my Spanish so far is just what I’ve picked up here and there from hobby courses or books. Time to get serious!In the
I took a quick clip of this baby opossum, found in the flower beds beside the beach side Holiday Inn at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I was most impressed with the fauna there. I saw crows, pelicans, gulls, snake birds, turtles, alligators, a snake over a metre long, cardinals and woodpeckers who seemed quite
Over dinner, a friend who knows I’m going to South Carolina, compared me to a Southern Belle. Not sure what this meant, I guessed he was referring to my tendency to be “slightly evil,” that is to say, not bland. Canadians are known for blandness in conversation. As a child I was taught to avoid
I hope to return with a story to tell Read More »
Now reading: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. I took out the 30th anniversary edition of this book from the library. I’ve only read the first 80 pages and already it’s changing my view of evolution. Dawkins uses game theory and mathematical models to prove that many of the evolutionary advantages we might assume are
The Selfish Gene — Richard Dawkins Read More »